


Forgetful

by TheAngstQueen (AyonixAnimations)



Series: Discord Concept Rambling [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst with a sad ending, But I like writing SBI so I have to write Dadza, Gen, Ghostbur - Character - Freeform, I can't win, I wrote two versions, I'll be honest the happy ending is a little lackluster, Memory Loss, Panic Attacks, Phil is always ooc in all my works because I CAN'T WRITE HIM, Why does ghostbur not have a tag, because surprise surprise as my username suggests I am an angst writer, full of mistakes and not caring, no beta we die like wilbur, tbh I'm just projecting what I want to say to Ghostbur through Phil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28581525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyonixAnimations/pseuds/TheAngstQueen
Summary: Whether Ghostbur knows it or not, he is deciding to forget his memories on purpose.Basically I guess my brain wanted me to be sad so on the 29th of November I randomly wrote this concept of Ghostbur forgetting everyone he loves.
Relationships: Floris | Fundy & Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Series: Discord Concept Rambling [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2094219
Comments: 10
Kudos: 50





	1. An Attempt Can Be Made

**Author's Note:**

> This work is not great. Honestly I kinda don't want to post it but if it makes other people happy then so be it.
> 
> It's not my normal quality of writing because it was shat out of my brain in the span of like- an hour maybe? So I didn't go over it, overthink it, or edit it really. I just wrote and posted it in my server. It was liked so I guess I'm sharing it.
> 
> This, and the rest of the series is literally me letting my brain go brrrrrrr, reaching the character limit, posting it in my discord server in _several_ messages, copying those, and then pasting them here. So- yeah, not super detailed, not super great, but entertaining nonetheless. Enjoy.
> 
> p.s. I wrote this before I fully understood Ghostbur so I kept referring to him as Wilbur in this and I'm not gonna change it lol, no editing remember?

"Oh hey, dad." Wilbur smiles, waving as Phil walks up to him. "We haven't spoken in a while, do you need something?"

Phil raises an eyebrow. "Wil we talked this morning."

Wilbur falters, smiling fading slightly. "Did we? Oh, right I remember, weird how it slipped my mind."

"Are you alright?"

There was suddenly pain in his chest and Wilbur nods despite it. "Yeah- I've got some things I have to take care of so I'm gonna go."

Before Phil can say anything the ghost disappears, leaving the blond to sigh softly. He did have something he wanted to talk about but he supposes it could wait until later.

* * *

Wilbur feels nothing but relief when he's further from his father. He wasn't sure what the topic as but when he tried to remember the conversation all he felt was the overwhelming urge to hideaway. Wilbur shakes his head slightly. "I don't want to remember. Then I'll be sad..."

And so he doesn't.

* * *

"Phil, Phil, Phil," Wilbur mutters to himself as he wanders the city. "My father Phil. He..." The brunette's face falls and he lets out a distressed noise, tangling his fingers into his hair. "Why can't I remember?"

"Hey big man, you good?" Tommy asks, stumbling upon the distressed ghost.

Wilbur snaps out of it, sending an uneasy smile to his younger brother. "Yeah yeah, I'm fine I just... I'm forgetting something and I know it's really important that I remember."

Tommy's eyes widen. "Do you want some help? We've been together a long time maybe I know what you're trying to remember."

Wil opens his mouth but stops himself as a voice calls out.

"Morning Tommy, morning Wilbur!"

"G'morning Phil." The teen waves back.

The ghost hesitates, waving weakly. "Morning..." Wilbur stares at the retreating figure. "T-Tommy, nevermind about- about the remembering thing, I already got it. Thank you though."

Tommy looks back to find Wilbur gone and he frowns, concerned. "If he says so..."

* * *

"No _no no **no**_." Wilbur paces in front of the crane. "Why is this happening?"

"Hey, Wil I've got this book and- Wilbur?" Phil stops, recognising the signs of Wilbur being stressed. "Whoa, hey you're okay..." His tone if soft as he gains the ghost's attention. "Just relax and breathe alright?" He wasn't sure if ghosts even needed to breathe but regardless it should still be calming.

Wilbur nods frantically, following Phil's instructions and trying to breathe as evenly as possible. He gains control in a minute and lets out a long sigh, still anxious but at least not on the edge of a full-blown panic attack.

The blond smiles encouragingly when he notices Wilbur's a lot calmer now. "Are you okay? What's going on?" He's surprised when tears start falling from the ghost's eyes.

"I c-can't remember."

Phil raises an eyebrow. "You've known that your memories have been lost or repressed since your death Wil, what are you trying to remember?"

Wilbur shakes his head, wiping uselessly at his tears. "No n-no not remembering, I'm f-forgetting. Everything is- is disappearing. This s-stupid denial. A-Anyth-thing that makes me s-sad is just gone."

In all honestly, the father figure isn't sure what Wilbur is going on about, especially as his words get harder to understand through sobs. He hadn't wished he could hug him any more than right now.

Thankfully Wilbur continues without more prompting. "I for-forgot about what Eret did- I s-still can't remem-ber but I kn-know he did something to make me forget. I can't remember th-the last talk I had with Fundy. And-" There's a heavy sob as Wilbur looks up at his father, tears trailing down his cheeks. "I-I'm started to f-forget about you."

A sharp pain goes through Phil as his eyes widen. He slowly understood what Wilbur was trying to say. He was beginning to repress the memories almost as soon as they happened now. This was bad. "You don't remember our conversation from this morning then?"

Wilbur shakes his head. "N-No I remember that w-we talked but I j-just _can't_ remember wh-what it was. I forgot y-your name the oth-other day when I was with- Tommy. I did-didn't recognise Fundy th-this morning." He wraps his arms around himself, unable to stop himself from sobbing as he squeezes his eyes shut. "I d-don't want to forget- you, or F-Fundy, or our family... I j-just don't want to deal with this an-anymore, I just want t-to remember every-thing now."

Phil could already see the danger in that thought. It was likely Wilbur wouldn't remember any of this later or might even forget while they were speaking if this got any worse. "No Wilbur, listen. What you went through was traumatic. Your mind is only trying to protect you because I know as much as you do if you remembered you'd break. You're just trying to protect yourself. Don't blame yourself for not wanting to be unhappy." Phil's glad to see Wilbur's sobs dying down. "You can't rush into diving headfirst into your repressed memories it will _destroy_ you. You need to take it slow. Start by accepting that it's alright to be unhappy, and try keeping conversations you have with others." Phil smiles encouragingly. "Start with this one, because you are strong enough to overcome this son." The blond chuckles softly. "You just need to take it slower."

The silence that stretches between the two isn't uncomfortable, filled with the noises of the wind blowing through the trees and birds tweeting away happily. Wilbur nods, a soft smile gracing his features. "Okay... I'll try."


	2. The Good Ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is trash lol (and short because I was distracted and on discord), I'm sorry I wasn't really in the mood to be hopeful when I originally wrote this.

Wilbur hums softly to himself as he waters some flowers.

It was a song he had forgotten and recently remembered. A song of hope and freedom.

"I heard there was a special place... where men could go and emancipate..."

Phil passes by the ghost, going unnoticed and smiles to himself when he hears the tune before continuing on his way.


	3. The Bad Ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angst angst angst angst a-.

A brunette stares at the two people talking down the hill. His chest hurt as he did, but it was a feeling he was quickly growing accustomed to and ignored it. If he paid attention he could make out what the two were saying.

"Phil this is a dumb idea that will never work."

Phil rolls his eyes laughing. "Yes, it will! Trust me. It'll work, you just gotta have faith in me, Tommy, of course, it won't work if you don't."

The ghost presses his mouth into a hard line, he's sure if he was alive that the nails biting into his palms would make him start bleeding, but he feels no pain other than the one in his chest. He puts on of his hands there, bunching up his sweater but not caring in the slightest.

He's about to walk away, feeling too cold and tired to want to spy on people when Tommy's voice stops him.

"Hey, have you seen Wilbur recently?"

The name makes him gasp in pain, sinking to his knees as he clutched his chest tighter.

"No I don't think so I haven't... seen him since I... talked to him a few days ago..." He's not sure what Phil's expression is because he's too busy focusing on what was causing the pain. "Shit. I suddenly have a really bad feeling. Wilbur?!"

The two start calling that name and the brunette winces when the pain increases. There's a question in the front of his mind, sitting on the tip of his tongue and he's too disoriented to remember not to voice it out loud.

The shouts draw the other citizen's attention. Their voices joining with the other two's. The ghost just shakes his head, and he can't help but ask the question, soft voice reaching to no one.

"Who is Wilbur?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more clarification because obviously from Wilbur's pov you are missing some stuff. Wilbur forgot who he is because as he tried to remember things and eventually came the realisation that it's far too painful and just decided to forget everything about himself. Then nothing would ever hurt again.


	4. Bad End Bonus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Save yourself the trouble and just stop at the bad end. Don't read my cringe bonus with Phil and Wilbur-

“Wilbur there you are! We’ve been looking all over for you.” Phil breathes out, slightly out of breath from running as he moves over to the ghost sitting on the bench overlooking the city. “Is a new ability of yours to turn off your hearing as well? I don’t know how you could have been here the entire time and not heard us.”

At Wilbur’s silence, he sits next to him sighing. “About what I said the other day, you don’t need to rush yourself into it. And even if you don’t want to remember anything it’s alright, no one would blame you. Hell if I had the option, maybe I would too.”

Wilbur looks at him, a confused expression on his face. “Sorry, are you talking to me or do you usually talk to yourself like this? Because if you’re talking to me I’m afraid you have the wrong person.”

Phil’s stomach drops but he forces out a nervous laugh. “Come on Wilbur you know that’s not funny.”

A head tilt. “I’m just not who you think I am, sorry. I’ve never met a Wilbur in my life and that’s definitely not my name.” He frowns slightly “Well actually, I can’t be too sure, my memories are all fuzzy, but I have this feeling that I’m right about that.”

The bad feeling from earlier comes back full force. Phil almost reaches out but quickly remembers he can’t touch the ghost. He looks at him again but doesn’t see any recognition at all in his eyes, confirming Wilbur’s words. What had happened that made Wilbur literally forget himself? Phil mentally curses himself. He should have stayed with Wilbur when the other left after that conversation.

The question now was, what was Phil going to do?

Wilbur looked at him, a small smile on his face with a look of concern for Phil out of all people. Reminding Wilbur of the things he forgot never ended well or just led him to forget more of the person who brought it up or even the conversation, so trying to bring back his identity would be extremely difficult. Not to mention stressful on the boy.

Phil holds back his emotions, sure that they’d just confuse the other as he comes to a decision. “Sorry- about that… You just look a lot like one of my… sons. I’m Phil.” The words feel heavy in his mouth but he pushes himself to continue. “What’s your name?”

There’s a second of confusion on the ghost’s face before he looks at the blond. “I’m not quite sure I remember correctly, but I think I’m William.” He smiles. “It’s nice to meet you, Phil.”

“You too Will…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CRIIIIIIINGE

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to yell at me via my Twitter [@AyonixAni](https://twitter.com/AyonixAni). I've started posting about upcoming fic ideas if you wanna know what's on the agenda next.


End file.
